Great things are happening to the improvement of Cranbrook Spray Irrigation and Waste Water Collection site. However the residents of Fort Steele have for many years had serious concerns and they are ongoing. Many residents have talked about their frustrations in being heard and being taken seriously.
It is apparant there needs to be much better communication. For that reason we publish two of their letters.
This letter has also been submitted Nov 7, 2011 to the Townsman.
To the Good People of Cranbrook
It is with great sadness that I inform you, that the Cranbrook Sewage Lagoon 2 near Fort Steele is still leaking. A recent report done by the City shows the amount of annual leaking has almost doubled in the last 3 years.
27 million dollars of your tax money has been spent to upgrade the sewage disposal facility and the city has not even tried to fix the leak.
Lagoon 2 was built in a poor location, a natural a ‘kettle lake’ that drains out the bottom. Cranbrook sewage has been leaking for 30 years. For 15 years, the residents close by, have been asking the Mayor and City Council to fix the problem. What causes them to actively protect the City water supply, but dump sewage in ours?
In April 2009 the Environmental Appeal Board ( a legal court ) Decision stated “The evidence is overwhelming that effluent is escaping from lagoon 2 at approximately 330 000 cubic meters annually….. effluent by definition damages or is capable of damaging the environment”. The CPR proved that the sewage effluent traveled at least 3 km. Unfortunately, our community wells are closer than 3 km.
In the same hearings, evidence was given of visual proof of the saturated water table. Lakes had formed on the fields and ponds had formed outside the lagoons.
Late in 2009 the City of Cranbrook announced twice that they were closing lagoon 2. However, they never followed through. A third storage lagoon has been built; however, the City still plans to continue to use lagoon 2, and spent money installing an aeration system in this leaking lagoon.
The leakage appears to be increasing. The City of Cranbrook’s own 2009 Report shows more than 370,000 cubic meters of unaccountable loss from the lagoon.
The “2010 Cranbrook Spray Irrigation Facility Annual Report”, available at the library, estimates a loss of 582,000 cubic meters from the sewage lagoons. That is equivalent to 232 Olympic sized swimming pools of sewage dumped in one hole in one year. 18% of Cranbrook’s total sewage is lost from Lagoon 2. That means over 3000 Cranbrook people are dumping their sewage directly into our community’s watershed. This sewage contains pharmaceuticals, hormone inhibitors, dioxins, PCBs, pesticides, disease causing agents, etc.
Is this how you want to treat your neighbours?
Please consider our drinking water when you vote on Nov 19th.
A. Ridge, M.Ed 250 489 5923
Sprucetreeranch@xplornet.ca
Letter to the Editor
Help Needed, Please.
The People of Cranbrook can choose to help.
It has been almost three years, since I first requested of your City Council, better treatment for the livestock on the Cranbrook Spray Irrigation Site. The City of Cranbrook did not listen.
The cows are still forced to drink sewage effluent, as fresh water is not supplied. Both the 2009 and 2010 Cranbrook’s Spray Irrigation Facility Annual Reports show that the watering holes on site are unfit for animals to drink, in some cases, 2000 times above the guidelines.
Is it really healthy to have cattle drink contaminated drinking water? Then eat the effluent-sprayed hay and pasture. We must be aware that this beef has the potential of ending up on your, or my, dinner plates.
Your help is requested. You can ensure that the right thing is done.
Please help by voting on November 19th.
Please elect a Mayor and council that will do right thing and provide fresh water for the cows on the Spray Irrigation.
It is up to you, the People of Cranbrook.
Jim Roberts
Rancher
Ft. Steele, BC
Thank you to the Guardian for publishing these letters. As a resident of Cranbrook I must apologize to the people of Fort Steele who have to live with our sewage. I too hope that with a change in municipal government more progress can be made to rectify this sorry situation.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe that this is still happening despite all the huge sums of money spent on upgrading. It is shocking, particularly for the people of Ft. Steele, whose watershed apparently continues to be contaminated!!
ReplyDeleteThis should be a high priority of the new Mayor and Council.
Sad that so few of those visiting this site have commented on the frustrations felt by Ft. Steele residents. I wonder if things would be different if the roles had been reversed and we were on the receiving end of their waste water disposal?
ReplyDelete